Embers and Revelations

Led by Bangladesh-born vocalist/guitarist Vetis Monarch, the Canadian black/death metal band's third album, their first for Relapse, revels in Satanic majesty, sensuous filth, and an atmosphere that mixes Eastern sounds with elements more typical of extreme metal.

Weapon are an atypical band. Blackened death acts are a dime a dozen, but the really good ones are more difficult to find. Even among that elite group, the pickings get slimmer as ideas get staler and the same riff seems to surface almost as often as that one awkward guy from Chem class who never quite learned to take a hint. Now, enter Weapon. Even within a field populated by those who take pride in slicing against the grain, founding vocalist/guitarist Vetis Monarch and his cohorts reach as far outside the box as they can without turning their backs on the subterranean darkness from whence they came. On 2009's Drakonian Paradigm, they set their sights on greatness, with 201o's From the Devil’s Tomb they took aim, and now, on Embers and Revelations, they pull the trigger.

While the highly listenable From the Devil's Tomb was a loose, depraved affair, steeped in the atmosphere and elements of its Canada-based, Bangladesh-born creator's Eastern upbringing (summed up perfectly in the serpentine "Lefthandpathyoga"), its successor is more of a challenge. It's leaner, more focused, and utterly relentless, with riffs sharpened by genuine hatred and Satanic conviction. Vetis takes the lead role when it comes to guitars and vocals, but he's now joined by second guitarist Rom Surtr, whose skill is felt in the complex, engaging structures of the songs. The drumming is inhumanly precise, executed by the Disciple (formerly of influential Canadian black metal experimentalists Rites of Thy Degringolade) and Kha Tumos' basslines sport a rich, resonating tone that menaces as much as it anchors. The chemistry between the band's members is apparent, and the attention to detail is near-fanatical.

Save for the crisp, almost startlingly pretty opening salvo of "Liber Lilith", gone are the stealthy, slinky melodies and exotic scales that once served as Weapon's primary defense against being lumped in with those of a more homogenous ilk. They've replaced these elements with vitriol and venom. "Embers and Revelations" is a snarling beast, all punishing intensity and manic leads. There are moments of murky, churning simplicity, like the malevolent dirge of "Disavowing Each in Aum" or doomy middle passage on "Grotesque Carven Portal", and a few sparse but effective, not to mention beautifully rendered, moments of calm (most notably heard in the first few moments of album closer "Shahenshah"). At its core, though, the album is black/death, despite its refusal to stay shackled to such a colorless descriptor. Those genre lines blur, and those elements that belong to Weapon-- and only Weapon-- cannot be contained. To make it easy on a casual metal listener, imagine a particularly unholy blend of Belphegor, Melechesh, Nile, Watain, and Behemoth. Now add in some Master's Hammer worship and vintage Morbid Angel appreciation, tattoo it with Kali's name, hand it a knife, then leave it to die on an unnamed street corner in any hot, dusty city.

Embers and Revelations revels in Satanic majesty and sensuous filth. The lyrics, delivered in Vetis' largely decipherable mid-range growl, range from pure nihilism to sexual perversion and the despoilment of the sacred. His Eastern roots and Satanic faith surface once again, and there is a strangely poetic feel to the deviance and inhumanity of Vetis' words, made all the more unsettling by how clearly they resonate. On "Liber Lilith", for example, he invokes the antithesis of feminine virtue like so: "Vile temptress, Goddess ov Drakon! Initiator of perversion in mankind!/ Let the phalli of murderers glow within Thy orifice of defecation/ O, ravishing Queen of noxious blood!/ He who repudiates Thy pulsating cunt/ Shall yield to strangulation by the severed, umbilical cord of a fetus."

Weapon's Relapse debut has garnered them far more attention than their past releases, and their recent spate of touring alongside Marduk and 1349 went a long way toward raising their profile in the states, but one gets the feeling that this is only the beginning. Ember and Revelations is an addictive listen, and a dangerous one at that: In Weapon's world, Satan lives and humanity is divided into those who walk with him and those who cower before him. When's the last time you prayed?